A big weekend on the baseball diamond, a couple of national placers on the indoor track and Jayhawks being honored left and right on the postseason all-Big 12 hoops teams.
All of that, and more, will be celebrated in this week’s Monday Morning Wheaties.
You’ve seen the tomahawks on the back of the Florida State helmets, the buckeye tree leaves on the Ohio State helmets and the paw prints on the back of the Clemson helmets.
Each Monday, we take one last look back at the week that was and hand out different amounts of the iconic breakfast cereal to the Jayhawks’ top performers.
So, be sure to come get your Monday Morning Wheaties and feel free to hit up the comments section — subscribers only for now — with any players you feel we might’ve missed.
Picture on the box
• Loudermilk, Simms land on podium – Five Kansas track athletes were in Boston last weekend for the NCAA Indoor Championships and two of them landed on the podium in their signature events. Devin Loudermilk took third in the high jump and Clayton Simms brought home a sixth-place finish in the pole vault. Both earned first-team indoor All-American honors and will take that momentum into the spring season, which starts this weekend at UCF’s Black & Gold Invite in Orlando.
A full bowl
• Senior pitcher Reese Dutton – The social media post called him "Mr. Tone Setter” and that could not have been more perfect. In the KU baseball team’s Friday night upset of No. 3 TCU, Dutton was masterful on the mound, tossing 7 innings of 1-run ball, surrendering 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 8 to deliver a 3-1 Kansas victory. His effort not only set the tone for the night but for the whole weekend, as the Jayhawks took 2 of 3 games from TCU to win the Big 12 opening series for both teams.
• Senior guard Zakiyah Franklin – It wasn’t exactly a do-or-die game for the Jayhawks’ postseason chances, but Franklin sure played like it anyway. In the KU women’s basketball team’s Big 12 tournament win over BYU last Friday night, Franklin went off for 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting in 34 minutes of the blowout victory. She followed that up with 13 points in a hard-fought loss to Texas, continuing to play in attack mode against the Longhorns like she did in the win over BYU.
• Hoglund homers – Four Jayhawks hit home runs during the weekend series against TCU at Hoglund Ballpark, with shortstop Chase Diggins blasting his second home run of the season in the opener and then watching as teammates Lenny Ashby (5th of the season), Michael Brooks (2) and Janson Reeder (1) all left the yard in Game 2 of the series on Saturday. Through the first 14 games of the season so far, the 9-5 Jayhawks have 23 home runs from nine different players.
• Another shutout for Hamilton – KU softball senior Kasey Hamilton pitched 7 strong innings for the Jayhawks on Sunday to help KU pick up its first Big 12 win of the season in the series finale at UCF. Hamilton gave up just 4 hits and struck out 3 in the 1-0 victory that moved Kansas to 14-7-1 overall and 1-2 in Big 12 play. Hamilton, at 5-5 on the mound, now has five complete-game shutouts on the season, which leads the Big 12 Conference.
Nighttime snack
• Senior guard Kevin McCullar Jr. & senior center Hunter Dickinson – It hasn’t exactly been the most memorable homestretch for the Kansas men’s basketball team, but it was still a good individual season for both KU veterans. And the Big 12 coaches rewarded them for it on Sunday when the all-conference postseason honors were announced. Both Dickinson and McCullar landed on the all-Big 12 first team, with Dickinson winning Big 12 Newcomer of the Year honors. Dajuan Harris Jr. also landed on the Big 12’s all-defensive team and Johnny Furphy was named to the Big 12’s all-freshman squad.
• Senior center Taiyanna Jackson & freshman guard S’Mya Nichols – Like the KU men, the KU women had two players earn first-team all-Big 12 honors when the postseason awards came out, with Jackson and Nichols each landing on the 10-player first team and the all-defensive and all-freshman teams respectively. Holly Kersgieter and Zakiyah Franklin also earned honorable mention nods for the NCAA Tournament-bound KU women.
Drink the milk
• Roszak & Price deliver – In the top of the first inning in Sunday’s KU softball win at UCF, Lawrence native Sara Roszak reached base with a walk and then advanced to third on a passed ball and sacrifice bunt. From there, Angela Price drove her in with a deep sacrifice fly that put the game’s only run on the board. Pretty important stuff in a 1-0 Kansas victory.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kutickets.com
